Tyler & Alene's Outdoor Adventures

Yellowstone July 2011

2012-02-01T00:52:00.002-07:00

This is a long-delayed blog post for our trip to Yellowstone NP. Since this trip we have been extremely busy with coaching football and a new addition to the family (welcoming our new little hiker, Waylon Elijah).

Yellowstone was extremely beautiful and definitely lived up to the hype, both the good and the bad. Good, as in the beauty and scenery, bad as in all the people (and dumb people at that).

DAY 1

We made the trek up through Idaho and met up with Bill and April inside the west entrance at the Artists Paintpots. It was here we got our first whiff of the sulfer smell of Yellowstone. I could not believe how beautiful the geysers were in person.

(note, I've pretty much tossed out the idea that I could be a photographer with a big fancy camera, so I'm just using my iphone camera and at times, the Hipstamatic camera app, which I love).

The first hot pot we saw at the Artists Paintpots

The bubbly paint pots

The kids checking out the paint pots

Looking below on the boardwalk and back toward the parking lot

Caiden at the paint pots

Working our way back to the car and stopping for a little picture

After the paint pots, we headed further into Yellowstone to meet up with Bill and April at the Norris Geyser Basin and did the loop hike there. Again, a lot of cool features and obviously a lot of stinky geysers.

Lots of dead trees around the geysers. Kind of cool how they die off, but just stick around

Red colored pool

Crater Spring

Bear paw tracks next to the boardwalk

Bailey did a lot of hopping off benches and rocks

Caiden and Lanik chilling along the trail. They lead the way

Approaching the visitor center another trail heads off in another direction

Daylight was fading so we headed to our campsites at Canyon Village. Upon setting up we proceeded to get POURED on by a big rain storm. We headed over to the visitor center to kill time eating and checking out the various shops. The rain eventually let up later and never came back (thankfully).

DAY 2

The next day I got up early and went over to get a picture of the Lower Falls from Lookout point to see the sunrise.

Same spot with the Hipstamatic lens

I ran back to camp to eat breakfast and we all headed over to the lower falls trail and worked our way down. The force of the waterfall is incredible while at the same time struck fear in me to no end (especially with my kids around). Looking at the falls from this point made me shiver thinking about accidentally falling in and knowing I'd have zero chance at survival.

Family picture taken by Bill Church

My portrait by Bill Church

Near the large falls along the yellowstone river there were a lot of buffalo hanging out

After the falls we headed up north to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. The drive was horribly long, but the views were unique and I'm glad we were able to go on up there.

The upper part of the mammoth hot springs trail

Snapped a pic of this cool formation on our way out of Mammoth

I really wanted this AWESOME tee shirt, but couldn't quite afford it, plus I'm probably not cool enough to wear it.

After getting back from Mammoth we headed back over to the lower falls of the Yellowstone river, but this time we went to the south side of the falls and did the Uncle Toms trail down the wet, steep stairs to the bottom of the falls. I loved this view of the waterfall

When we finally made it back up the trail to the parking lot we drove down to the Artist Point view area and snapped a pic of Caiden

DAY 3

The next morning I woke up early to take sunrise pictures with Bill, but since there were no clouds he opted to sleep in. I was up reading a book and could not fall back asleep, so I ran back over to Lookout point and tried to get a decent selfie, but the sun was so bright I couldn't open my eyes

I ran back to camp to help pack up so we could head on out to the grand daddy of the park: OLD FAITHFUL. Along our way there we stopped at Midway Geyser Basin. This was actually my favorite place of all. The colors were amazing here.

It was cool seeing the hot geyser above with the cool wind blowing the steam around while the geyser trickled down into the Firehole River

Heading up the trail

Awesome colors

We left Midway Geyser area and headed to Old Faithful. This was obviously the most insanely crowded area, but we had to do it. There had to be a thousand people camped out every time the geyser spouted. It definitely was faithful in its spouting.

We saw a much higher gush than this, but I was tired of taking pictures at this point and got lazy

After all that madness we decided to ditch 99% of the people there and do a 1 mile hike (most of the people there were too lazy to get out of their car, let alone hike a mile to some other cool spots in the park) out to see the most awesome hot spring, Morning Glory

Caiden attempted to carry his sister in the Kelty carrier; it lasted about 20'

Morning Glory

Family portrait by Bill Church

Another cool geyser on the way back toward the cars

We quickly left the mad house at Old Faithful and headed toward our campsite at Grant Village. On our way there we passed over the Continental Divide, so I took the opportunity to get a photo op

After getting set up we hiked down to Yellowstone lake to hike around a bit and take a couple of pictures. I failed to mention that all the water was high and all the rivers were running abnormally fast due to the major snowpack we experienced the previous winter. Yellowstone lake had buried a foot bridge in this area that you can't even see.

After our camp in Grant Village we packed up and prepared for the long drive back home. We opted to take the drive continuing south through Grand Teton NP, which was beautiful, but we did not have time to stop for pictures (that's another place I'd love to spend time at alone).

Over-all I'm glad I was able to see such beautiful scenery. I'd love to get into the backcountry a bit in this area someday, but not with kids as I can't stand the though of them being attacked by bears (side note; a week prior a man was killed by a bear where we first camped so it was a bit creepy). I'll be back to this park again someday, especially if it's a good down-time for tourists.

Camping trip to Maple Canyon

2011-06-23T04:25:00.000-06:00

I think I'll just post the link of our good friends, the Beatty's since we didn't take as many pictures and can't describe it any better. Need to get back to that place.

Here is their blog post: Maple Canyon

5.10.11 Kanarra Creek (short hike)

2011-05-15T09:12:00.002-06:00

I was on a work-related trip back to St George, after having been there two weeks earlier for spring break. On my way home I thought I'd take a little detour to Kanarraville to hike Kanarra creek, which I had first seen through Bill's photos from last summer.

To get to Kanarra Creek, just head East up 100 North off Main street and you'll come to a parking lot right before the road is fenced off. Park there and follow the well-marked maintenance road from here on out.

Recently we've had some serious rain storms, coupled by a 200% snow pack, so the creek was running really high and really fast. I did some creek hopping a couple of times in order to stay dry, but after the 3rd time I was done; I removed my shoes and rolled up my pants. The water was COLD and running fast. I needed a stick to keep my balance or I would have gone down for sure.

The canyon was beautiful once you get back into it, but as you can see from my pictures, I didn't get as far as I would have liked to (see Bill's pic's; they got into the narrows section and to the awesome water fall). I was very close to that area, but it was impossible for me to keep going without risking being swept down the creek by the massive rush of water.

I really want to go back, possibly this summer. It's so close to the freeway and pretty quick to get to.

The first big crossing; had to find a skinnier spot down stream

The trail gets skinnier for a bit, but I can imagine when the water is not as fast, that people just hike right up through the creek at this point

Water supply pipe is getting exposed

A second crossing. I went up stream a bit, barely finding some rocks to climb over and hop to the other side to continue

Another crossing (can you see how this is getting a bit tiresome?)

Canyon is getting a bit skinnier in the background

The first crossing with bare feet. I had considered trying the log with my shoes on, but I thought I'd be safer just wading through the water bare foot.

View of the creek before I crossed it

There was a mini-alcove across the creek

And beyond the alcove just around the corner was a this tiny fall that had some massive water pouring over

The rest was a bit un-eventful. Traveled off the path a bit to avoid getting too wet; climbed up high on a cliff to by-pass some areas that I couldn't pass (too fast and deep)

Cold bare feet

My by-pass route

Selfie on the bypass route

This was as far as I got across the creek. I had ditched my shoes and decided to go barefoot, but found a ways up that it got to narrow (note my shoes across the creek)

Too narrow to keep going

Selfie after returning to the first barefoot crossing

I had to get home quickly, so I high-tailed it back, running most of the way in wet pants. I can't wait to go back under better circumstances.

Spring Break 2011: Zion, Snow Canyon, Red Cliffs

2011-05-04T09:44:00.002-06:00

I almost forgot to blog about our spring break trip. This was the first time we had a spring break where my son Caiden had an entire week off. Usually it was a couple of days of the week, so we really wanted to plan some decent time away from home.

The weather still sucks (i.e. COLD) so we wanted to head as far south as possible without the drive being too long. We opted for Southern Utah.

On Tuesday morning we piled in the car (note: We were able to take this trip in our Subaru due to April and Bill allowing us to use their Thule cargo box, which was AWSOME; we'll definitely be getting one) and headed directly down to Zion. We stopped at Fillmore for a rest and picture with this huge deer

We arrived at our campsite at the Watchman campground around 5pm and set up camp. By the way, for a national park the watchman campground isn't too bad. They've just re-built the whole C-loop and were working on the D-loop. It's never desirable for me to camp in an improved campground, but this wasn't too bad. After setting up camp we took a little stroll down to the Virgin River, then along the Pa'Rus trail.

The Virgin River was FAST due to all of the run off. The kayakers were in heaven.

The Pa'Rus trail was really nice. Wished we had brought our bikes to stroll along, but I'm not sure how well that would have worked with how packed we were in our car. We found this awesome little grassy meadow along the way that the kids played in. This type of grass brought back memories for me of the kind of grass in our backyard growing up. I haven't seen it in a long time.

After that we hiked up to the road to a bus pick up and rode the bus back to camp. That night kind of sucked not because it was REALLY windy, but mostly due to the campers that were a good 60' from us, but the dad let his kids stay up until 11:30. They were loud and the dad had this LOUND voice as well. Not to mention, it took them about 2 hours to get a fire going and once the fire was going, they kept their lantern on full light right next to the fire. From inside our tent it looked like it was a full moon outside. This is the ONLY downside to this kind of campsite.

The next day we got up and went to do the Watchman overlook trail. I actually really liked this trail, but I can imagine how much it might suck in the dead of summer because there is a lot of areas with no shade.

Caiden and Bailey ready to go

Bailey did a lot of hiking on her own

At the overlook

Bailey getting a ride back down on daddy's shoulders

After that we decided to go do the riverwalk trail to the Narrows entrance. We rode the bus up and Caiden and Bailey were having a fun time tickling each other

The cool part about being in Zion in the spring is seeing all of these waterfalls that you don't normally see

Alene and Bailey on the trail

Bailey saw these squirrels and went nuts. She loved them.

We arrived at the narrows exit area and the water was higher than any other time we had been there.

(this was what it was like a few years ago in the fall; barely past my ankles)

Family shot

Hiking back

More pics of the waterfall

After getting back to our campsite we drove into Springdale to get the kids some ice cream, then did a drive up through the Hwy 6 tunnel. Along the way we stopped at Alene's secret swimming hole along Pine Creek. We didn't jump in because the water was FREEZING, but I'll definitely do it this summer when I'm back down there for work.

Her belly is showing a bit

The great arch, which is above the pool area

The last day at Zion (Thursday) we went to hike the Emerald Pools trail. Bailey was LOVING these bronze animals at the visitor center

Daddy and Bailey along the Emerald Pools trail

The lower pools area. Very wet and muddy

The middle pools areas was closed off (re-working the trail) so we hiked up to the upper pools, which I had never been to. I LOVED this pool and imagine it would also make a great swimming hole in the hot summer, but they don't allow swimming

The water fall emptying into the upper pool would change its course due to wind change.

After this hike we took the bus back to our car and headed into St George to our hotel. That night we just hung around the hotel pool and went out to dinner.

The next day (Friday) we started off the morning heading over to Snow Canyon. We played in the sand dunes and then hiked one of their smaller trails (can't remember the name).

After hiking we went back to the pool to do some swimming, then went into town to do some shopping at the outlets. We played around the pool with our Fuji camera, which can do pictures and video under water

While at Old Navy, Bailey broke out in some serious dance.

After shopping we stopped by the St George Temple

We ended the day with the kids watching a movie in their bed

On our last day (Saturday) we stopped by the Red Cliffs national recreation area, where I had gone to a little over a year ago. Some people were braving the cold water, but I wasn't brave enough. I'd love to come back to jump in this area during the dead of summer though.

An old fallen tree

The pools

Lastly, had to stop in Beaver, UT to take a picture of this huge rocking chair

San Rafael Reef March 2011; Day 2

2011-03-27T17:17:00.000-06:00

We froze the previous night and Bailey slept well. We were so worried about both her and Caiden that they were going to freeze to death and we would never know it, but they were fine. Since it was so cold on Saturday morning, we just stayed in the tent for a good hour trying to stay warm, hoping the sun would break through and help us out. I finally got the courage to climb out of the sleeping bag and get some breakfast made along with a fire.

After that we decided to head off to Ding canyon, which is another great canyon. Someday I'd love to do the whole loop (up Ding and down Dang), but Bailey can only do so much. We packed her in her Kelty carrier all the way to the canyon opening (about 3/4 mile), then she got out and did all of the hiking the rest of the way.

I forgot to mention how well the dogs were such good hikers too. There are about 7-8 climbing obstacles in this canyon and they were relatively good about allowing us to pick them up and hand them up to continue on. Bailey was able to hike the entire canyon all the way to the back of the canyon.

Approaching the reef

Alene with Dexter and Debra

Alene and Bailey found a bed

Approaching the slot

We showed Bailey how to make bridges

Bailey's attempt at making a bridge under Caiden

More of the slot

Me, chilling with Debra

Passing by the big pothole section

Dexter, sacked out at the back of the canyon before heading back

The dogs finding a nice drink in a pothole

After getting back to the truck we had been expecting to meet up with some friends, so we drove to an area with good cell phone coverage. They were not able to make it due to multiple issues, so we considered the fact that the weather was getting worse, that it would be best if we just went to Goblin Valley, back to camp for dinner, then head home. It ended up being the best decision because for the last 20 min or so of putting camp away, it started to snow. It would have been miserable to stick around

Bailey climbing on a goblin

Bailey and daddy not happy about the rain at Goblin

Bailey found a chair

Daddy and Bailey

Bailey wanted to carry the umbrella and she wanted everyone to get under it....at the same height she was standing. (side note, after singing "under my umberella" by Rhianna, 5000 times and annoying Alene to death, Bailey started singing it. It was the best part of the day.

Bailey loving the view from above

Caiden jumping off a rock (backward)

All in all, it was a good trip. I would have loved to be able to stick around and do more on Sunday, but it all was for the best.

San Rafael Reef March 2011; Day 1

2011-03-27T16:54:00.001-06:00

Note: Some of these pictures were taken with my iphone's "hipstamatic" camera, which I really like. Sorry if they don't look like traditional pictures.

This was the 6th year in a row that we've done a camping trip to the Swell in March, but this one was cut a day short due to weather. Still, we made the most of the opportunity to be down there.

We had been watching the weather report and for at least a week out, it was looking pretty good, then doom and gloom (i.e. cold and rain/snow) started showing up on the forecast and things weren't looking so good. Still, we carried on with our plans because part of us (me) were optimistic that the weather man would suck (as usual) in his forecast, while the other half of us were just hell-bent on continuing the tradition.

On our way down we encountered heavy rain/snow all the way until we reached the green river area. Things were looking somewhat hopeful when we started to see some blue sky, then we arrived at the Reef and it started to hail like crazy.

This is what the ground looked like at our favorite campsite (which we always luck out and score when we go there)

We even experienced seeing some awesome run-off of water and realized how quickly an amazingly a flash flood starts. No, we didn't see a flood, but in the short amount of rain/hail that happened, there was quite a bit of run-off off the reef into little ditches all around. It was awesome.

The wet slickrock around our campsite

Like typical Utah desert fashion, it dried up quickly and blue skies started showing up. We quickly set up camp and hung around for a bit.

Caiden and bailey played in the sand for a while

We also explored around the reef. The dogs were loving their new freedom

My new all-wood Proof sunglasses

We decided to head north to Farnsworth canyon to do a little hike. I forgot how much I LOVED Farnsworth. It's easy for kids and there are some really scenic spots in this slot.

The trail going toward the canyon

Farnsworth canyon in the background

Dropping down into the canyon and looking East

Bailey taking a ride

Caiden

Bailey found a little chair

It starts to narrow up

So cool to see how much flash flooding can change a canyon. A year ago we came here to this spot and had to scramble around multiple potholes of water. This time they were full of dirt and rocks

Under the large rock and choke stone

Same spot that was full of water last year (reverse angle), along with last year's picture

(last year)

Selfies on the way out

It started to get pretty cold, so we headed back to camp, made dinner, sat around for a bit, then hit the sack

The Wave

2011-03-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

Late last fall Alene put in for permits for Coyote Buttes North (aka "The Wave") and we found out about a month or so later that we were selected for late February. Ever since I had seen our friend Clint's photo's from his trip there with his wife in 2007, I've wanted to get down there and see what it was like in person.

We had 6 passes and they were instantly taken up by April/Bill and Alene's friend James from her work and his wife Amber. Clint came along as well, but he was just going to do some other hikes in the area while we went in, but he was able to score a walk-in pass that night before.

We met up at the parking area for the Notch trail and set up our camp there. The weather had been forecasted to be cold and rainy with heavier chances of snow later in the evening. This was the first time Alene and I had set up camp in the back of our truck, which has a shell on it. I really liked it because you don't have to set up a tent and it was quite warm in there.

House Rock road driving in

That evenings dinner consisted of a "burritoff" that Bill had suggested. We all brought our own burritos to warm up over the fire and extras to cook so we could share with others. We would then vote for who had the best tasting burrito. As everyone started to explain the ingredients in their burrito's, I was ready to throw in the towel, but I had loaded mine with LOTS of cheese and used a Jalapeno Cheddar tortilla (which I think helped put me over the top). I won the contest and the $5 each pot, however I relinquished the winnings due to bad advice I would give the next day (more of that to come).

Burritos on the coals (the best way to make a burrito)

Me, overlooking our campsite (photo by William Church)

The next morning we drove about 3 miles north to the Wire Pass trail head and departed. The hike in was awesome and started off in a dry river bed, then split off to higher ground and it was there that you began to see some awesome scenery.

Alene and I at the trail head

Heading up out of the dry wash to Coyote Buttes

Scenery begins to change a bit (see the pointy buttes in the background)

At about 1/3 of the way there, this is a video view. You can get a bit of foreshadowing with the sound of the wind picking up.

From here the hike in was due south and the best bearing was this HUGE crack you see in the mountain range directly south. Aim for that and it takes you right up to the Wave.

Pictures of our hike on the way toward the wave (note any views you see of a darker spot on the sandstone cliffs in the background)

The worst part of the hike in is crossing this large area of sand, then a hike up a somewhat long mound of sand before you enter the wave. It was here that we started to get a taste of sand blowing in our faces.

Here is the first thing you see when you approach the wave

When we arrived there, there were 3 photographers there already. On our way in we also passed a family of 4. The wave was a surprisingly small area with 3 "chambers" that you get the photos from. We loved every minute being there, especially when the light would hit the sandstone just right. These pictures were taken with both my wife's camera and my iphone.

Alene and I (taken by William Church)

After an hour or so the wind really started to pick up. We had started to hike back to what we thought was a cove and we thought we could seek a bit of protection from the wind storm while it blew through, but after arriving, we found it had no protection. I had this genius idea to head up over this area called "the notch", which, on the map was right above our campsite. We all pretty much agreed it would be best to get back to camp, then two of us would hike the 3 miles north back to pick up the vehicles. This turned out to be a disaster as the winds never let down and the trail going back was very hard to find. We ended up just route finding our way over and by the time we made it down the other side of the mountain, we were almost back at our cars (we had followed a wash that lead us north, back toward our cars, rather than due West, to the campsite).

Every time a gust of sandy wind would come, we would stop, turn our backs, and wait it out.

Stopped by the 2nd wave on our way out

I shielded my face with this book as the sand blew in

Another gust of wind/sand

I got knocked over by a gust, so I stayed down to ride it out while James and Amber looked on.

Alene and I riding out another gust

This is my favorite shot of the gust

The sand cove. Not much cove going on here, but it was kind of cool

Heading out over that mountain to our campsite

Getting toward the top

Going down the other side. It was sketchy at times, but we made it

As I said before, our hike back took twice as long as it would have if we had just opted to go back the way we came. I felt really guilty for suggesting this, but it did turn out to be a bit of an adventure, but it certainly sucked. After getting back to camp, we decide to ditch the bad weather and head into Page, AZ to get a hotel. On our way there we see this awesome dust storm blowing in.

We made a quick stop at Lee's Ferry

Then drove up and out of the lower river bed, on up toward Page. I took this picture of the storm heading our way

We made it to Horseshoe bend just at sunset, but the clouds were obviously covering most of that. The view from up here was awesome.

We checked into Page, Arizona's finest hotel, showered most of the sand off us and all ran out to eat. It was actually quite nice, but we were so beat from the hike out earlier that day.

The next day was very uneventful due to horrible weather. We stopped by the Glen Canyon dam and the bridge to check it out. The bridge is an engineering trip to look at.

The dam, whether you believe it was right to build it or not, is still something amazing to look at.

From here we opted to begin our drive toward Bryce Canyon, where we had originally booked a hotel (as a part of our plan). On our way back we stopped off at the Paria Toadstools. Regrettably, we did not know that there were more in the area to see, so we only saw the first few you see when you get there.

When we arrived at Bryce, they had white-out conditions and the snow was piling up like crazy. They were experiencing unusual snowfall, so we spent our evening at the lodge. We did have fun hitting up the hot tub and watching Clint and April jump into the cold pool, then back into the hot tub. This was the time we experimented with the water proof camera and it's video qualities (it was April's camera, but we have the same one).

The next day we headed out into the park to see what we could see. All the trails were pretty much shut down or inaccessible due to snow, so we were only able to access the view points.

As much as it sucked not being able to do more hiking (especially since we didn't have the kids on this trip), it was still awesome to see the Wave and make the most of our situation. I loved the hint of Bryce Canyon and can't wait to go back there with the kids.

09.12.10 Uintas

2010-09-13T08:33:00.001-06:00

It's been a long time since I've been out and doing anything. Football season started a bit earlier for me because I'm part of the board for our league, which means more time spent getting things ready for 200+ kids to play football (lots of paper work, fundraising, follow up, etc.) My brother Russ recently bought a backpack and wanted to get out and do a test trip to get used to it. On a whim I noticed that I had Saturday evening clear, so I jumped at the chance. My brother in-law Nate also came along.

I had a game to coach on Saturday that didn't end until a bit after 3pm, so we had to book it right from the game to my house to pack and head on up. We made it to the trail head about 7pm and booked it up past Lilly Lake, Wall Lake, and set up our camp above Wall lake at Twin Lakes.

At the beginning of the trail

I snapped this picture from our camp site.

We got a fire going and set up our tent, then out of bear paranoia and joking around, we started goofing around and building a drift log fortress around our campsite. Here are our pictures from the next morning.

Armed for bear

After a lousy night of sleeping, we packed up and headed down to complete the loop trail past Clyde lake, Watson lake, and Cliff lake.

After getting back to the truck, we loaded up and stopped by the Provo River falls, then headed down to Cataract Gorge, which my brother in-law Bill has been to a few times before. The road down was only 6 miles, but it was BUMPY and seemed to take forever, even though it only took about 30 minutes.

Provo River Falls

Cataract Gorge

Nate hanging from the zip line

The zip line wouldn't zip, so I decided to make use of it the best I could

Russ and I doing one of our poses from our youth (kind of backward though)

After Cataract Gorge, we stopped by the Duchesne tunnel, which is a 6 mile tunnel bored through the ground from the Cataract Gorge area to the Provo River (provides more water to Utah County). Pretty impressive to see this as it was done back in the 40's and 50's.

Long echo

It was a fun trip that lasted less than 12 hours, but worth it.

Stewart Falls Birthday Hike

2010-08-25T12:07:00.009-06:00

Sometimes I'm a nature snob. I'll start thinking that popular places to hike are overrated or only for those not willing to venture out further into lesser known areas. Or maybe I start underrating them because I think they are too crowded. But sometimes I am reminded that there's a reason they are popular and crowded and it's okay. Stewart Falls is exactly in that category. It's a fairly easy 2 miles each way, easy even for young families, the trail from Aspen Grove is shaded most of the way so it can even be done on a hot day, and the falls are beautiful.

I had talked with Tyler about doing a number of outdoor things for my birthday together, but we decided to do this hike with our whole family and I don't regret it. Bailey was an angel riding in the backpack, maybe that was her gift to me. Usually after about 10 minutes she is squealing to get out, but this time she seemed content. I did take some precautionary measures--I gave her a sucker, we took the canopy off of the backpack because it wasn't too sunny and she likes it better off, and I cruised along at a good rate, not stopping long for distractions at all. Lucky for her there were lots of wildflowers to point out, and we saw a bluebird and a snake. She still hasn't forgotten the snake we saw at Capitol Reef so that was a big hit. She seemed happy and even was singing for a bit of the way.

At the falls she had fun getting her feet wet and throwing little rocks into the stream. Then we had Bailey making different faces.

I love how Bailey is reaching out to touch Caiden's head in this picture.

Here I am trying to get Bailey to touch the falls, it doesn't look like we are close enough, but believe me, it was closer than Bailey wanted to get, and we were getting wet.

It was again, a perfect hike, not too hot, not too long, great scenery. I loved it.

Mt. Timpanogos Loop

2010-08-24T10:12:00.012-06:00

Two weeks ago April and I and her sister-in-law Whitney hiked Mt. Timpanogos. This was my 3rd time doing the summit, but my first time doing it as a loop hike.

My first time hiking Timp was in college I went with a group to the summit, departing around 12:30 am so we could be on top to see the sunrise. We hiked via the Timpooneke trail, the side that starts in American Fork Canyon, known for being a little longer, but less steep than the other side. My second time I backpacked it with April and Bill via the Aspen Grove, or Provo Canyon, side. We spent the night at the lake and I did the summit in the morning.

This time we wanted to see both sides of the mountain in one trip. April had never hiked up Timpooneke so we decided to go up that way, since we all acknowledge that you pay more attention to scenery on the way up, and on the way down, just want to get down. However, this meant that the return trip down Aspen Grove was the steeper one, which was much harder on our knees. But it was cool to see both sides and I prefer loop trails in general if given the choice or possibility. Loop trails feel like more of a complete trip than reaching a destination and turning around the same way I just came.

I would agree that Timpooneke is easier as I hardly felt the need to rest at all. We made it to the summit in 4 hours even after a long rest at the saddle.

All pictures are courtesy of April as I forgot to even bring my camera

Here is a beautiful meadow we saw.

Here we are at the saddle, cold and windy.

Here we are at the summit, and even though the clouds sort of blocked the view, I thought it was just perfectly beautiful and they added that whole mystical element to being on a mountain peak.

Looking out from the summit.

Looking down on the lake on the Aspen Grove side from the summit.

A mountain goat family that we followed down from the peak and then the whole herd at the lake.

We hung out at the lake for a long time to eat and take pictures. I like how the Aspen Grove trail has more waterfalls, but it's true I didn't notice as much on my way down. I was glad to be done when we were, all in all it was 10 hours for the hike, which I consider pretty good time. My calves were sore for a few days afterwards, but it was awesome to do that hike. I strongly recommend doing it on a Sunday if you want to avoid crowds. It's a hard hike, but it is really popular.

Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak

2010-08-24T09:10:00.005-06:00

April and I have been trying to get some good hiking in this summer and I'm behind on some of the trip reports. We did this hike in early July.

Lake Blanche is up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's an absolutely beautiful hike, tough because it's so up hill (gain 2700 feet over 3 miles), but super rewarding because the lake and Sundial Peak greet you at the end and the whole scenery along the way is beautiful too, with trees all along the trail and the creek beside it most of the way too.

The last time I hiked Lake Blanche it was mid-June and there was lots of snow at the top so I was a bit weary even in early July because of the long winter we had this year. Plus I had cut my knee open at the top last time, hiked down bleeding, and ended up getting stitches the next day--be careful of that rock field just before the lake!

Anyway, we started after 5 and made excellent time to the top. Here are some pictures of the route on the way.

Then this is what you see as you are just about to drop down to the lake, that's Sundial Peak in the background. I was surprised to see no snow at all in or around the lake. I love the red rocks right around the lake and the big gray peak behind it and how suddenly the trees have become pine instead of aspen and cottonwoods.

This is the little waterway to some smaller lakes just below Lake Blanche.

It was a perfect early evening hike.

07.10.10 Joes Valley (and Left fork of Huntington Creek)

2010-07-20T22:03:00.000-06:00

We broke away for the weekend to go to our favorite hidden gem in Utah, Joe's Valley reservoir. Every time we go there we are fortunate to see the reservoir with only a few boats.

On our way up, we took a scenic route through Huntington Canyon and did a short hike up the Left Fork of Huntington Canyon, which was amazing. This is actually a through hike into the upper joes valley area, but we only did about a mile up and back (Bailey was not going to sit in the backpack).

Some sheep grazing along the highway

Hiking up the canyon

Huntington Creek

Cool little dam

A cool little campsite along the creek

Bailey worked on her "pretty face"

Hiking back

Bailey hiking

After hiking, we got back in the truck and drove to Joe's Valley reservoir via Orangevale. As soon as we set up the tent, Bailey was so excited and laid in the sleeping bag

We went over to the lake and busted out the raft to float around the lake a bit.

The dogs started to whine as we drifted to shore. Then Dexter just started swimming out to us

Debra soon followed

They looked so cute. They swam right out to the raft, expecting us to pull them on. It was so amazing to see how they naturally know how to swim

I built up some nerves to jump into the lake from the higher ledge

We went back to camp, had some dinner, then walked down to the lake to try to catch a fish (no luck)

The next day we went back to the lake to swim and raft as we waited for our friends James and Amber to show up.

James and Amber showed up and we did some more swimming and jumping that evening and through Sunday morning

Alene finally did the big jump. Listen to Bailey egging her on.

Another one of my jumps

It was a great trip and we had a great time. Can't wait to go back to this place.

Wasatch Back 2010

2010-06-23T13:33:00.004-06:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of running Utah's Ragnar Relay, otherwise known as, the Wasatch Back. A few years ago this sounded fun to me when a girl I worked with told me about it, but at that time I considered hiking and backpacking my only sports. I never thought I would run races, and although I'm not competitive, I can call myself somewhat athletic.

The Wasatch Back is a 188 mile relay run from Logan to Park City, done with 12 runners on a team. Each team member runs 3 times, totaling between 12 to 18 miles. We named our team "Hayduke's Bastards" after the infamous character George Hayduke in Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang."

The team was made up of my twin sister and I, a friend of ours was the team captain, some friends of hers, some friends of her friends, and a few newbies our captain found online. It was a great team! I always have a strong sense of camaraderie with anyone I do something active or intense with and this was surely the case. It's awesome to me that I can feel as if we are all great friends now though I only just met some of them and I certainly hope that I"ll be seeing them again.

My team finished in just over 31 hours, so overall a less than 10 minute mile. We are all pretty average runners I think, a few faster, but I don't think any of us were unhappy with this performance because we really favored the fun and beauty of the experience over the end result. I was runner #2 with legs 2, 14, and 26, a total mileage of 13.1, or, an exact half marathon.

On race day, Van 1, or more appropriately, Truck 1, was due at the start at 6 a.m. in Logan so we left Salt Lake around 4:30. I felt great after my first run of 6.7 miles and when we all finished we drove ahead to relax at Snowbasin Resort while Van 2 ran legs 7-12.

Here's me at the first exchange as our first runner comes in and give me the Slap-it team baton / bracelet.

Here I am coming in and sending April off for her first run with a little tap on the butt.

Here I am trying to catch a few ZZZ's before the next run, but I really think I only laid down for about 20 minutes and then I just sat and relaxed and ate some more food in preparation for the next round.

Here I am with Brittany (the team captain) and April before heading out again.

Round 2 was late in the afternoon, and scorching hot. I think it was the hottest 3.1 mile run I've ever done as I usually avoid the heat of the day. The small towns were beautiful though and some of the local kids would wait out front with a hose and ask if you wanted squirted--I don't think anyone would have declined. Our last couple runners on this round had to abide by the rules and wear their headlamps, buttlamps, and reflective vests while running. When they finished around 11:00 or so (I can't quite remember) we drove ahead to shower and sleep at North Summit High school while again Van 2 ran the next 6 legs of the race.

After paying $2 for a "hot shower" and taking a cold one, I headed to sleep in the back of the truck while the rest of the team laid down in the gym or elsewhere in the school. I probably rested better than the others, for about 2.5 hours or so, but I do remember dreaming that we had better get a runner to the next exchange point.

So early in the morning we headed out to relieve Van 2 and all do our final run of the race. Despite how tired I was, after each run I felt totally great! I am not sure I have ever experienced a true "runner's high" before in practice or in racing, but I definitely did after all 3 of my legs for this race. Maybe it was just that I knew there were 5 other people cheering me on and checking on me as I went along, or maybe this final high was due to knowing that I was done after this. I remember feeling like it was harder than my actual half marathon because my body had to run again before it could recover, but now I'm not sure how to compare them.

In any case, when all 6 of us were finished we got a brief, free chiropractic treatment, bought some McDonald's breakfast which hasn't tasted so good to me in ages, and then drove way ahead to the Canyons Resort in Park City where we would again chill out until Van 2's final runner was headed in.

Here's Van 1 after showering and refueling at the Canyons Resort

Here is all 12 of us at the finish where we all ran the last 100 yards or so together.

I had so much fun doing this race that I have already begun researching others like it. I do love a great backpacking trip too, and this doesn't beat one, but it was so much funner than I had imagined it to be that I've been really surprised. I think I would happily do one again this coming weekend if I could. I loved the scenery, I loved the community of it, loved seeing parents racing with their grown children and everyone checking in on each other and helping out and all of that. It was just really awesome. Of course I was exhausted afterward and felt like I hadn't seen Bailey for days and days though it was really just one and a half. Thanks Tyler for watching her, thanks Brittany for organizing our team, thanks April for inspiring me to run, and thanks to my whole team for being awesome!

More pictures can be found in my facebook album here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224308&id=511860694&l=95547aab5b

or my Flickr album here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/root_family/sets/72157624321596596/

California Trip: Day 4/5

2010-06-23T09:59:00.001-06:00

No pictures for day 4. It was mostly a sleep in and relax day. We went to the gym and played basketball for a while (Roman and I even joined in on a game of 4-on-4 against some young bucks and held our own). We swam, then more relaxing.

On Monday Caiden and I headed out that morning and said goodbye to our friends. It was a good trip and a much needed in that Roman and I have not seen each other for 5 years. I really hope we can get our families together more often, but it's understandable how getting together can become more complicated due to jobs, family schedules, etc. Thank you so much Bestsy and Roman, for hosting us and letting us crash your house. It was so nice to get to know your children and hang out with you all.

On our way home I took Caiden on a tour of the places I grew up with. He was interested at first, but I'm sure it became boring to him

We first stopped by my old high school. I showed him the football field, which I was surprised to see how much had changed. They have field turf and an all-weather track.

I showed Caiden my last name, which is inscribed on the discus throwing practice ring area

I took pictures of the 3 locations that my parents used to have used car dealerships

Downtown Eldorado (my hometown) and the famous "Poor Reds"

Our old houses

We drove old Hwy 50 back to catch up with I-80. Along the way we stopped and took a picture of the American River. It was flowing pretty fast

The high sierras

Lake Tahoe

The drive across Nevada was very un-eventful. When we hit the Bonneville Salt Flats, we decided to get out and take a few sunset pictures

It was a good trip over-all. One thing that I was surprised to notice was how small everything felt. I remember feeling like the drive from Auburn to P-ville taking FOREVER, when it was really only about 30 minutes. I also remember Hwy 50 feeling like a HUGE freeway, now it seems like a small highway. I remember feeling like the drive from Sacramento to Placerville taking FOREVER, now it was a quick little trip up into the foothills. Just a weird observation for me.

It was nice to get back to see Alene and Bailey. I had really missed them so much and I hope that next time we take a trip like this, we can do it together.

California Trip: Day 3

2010-06-23T09:35:00.000-06:00

The next day we drove down to San Fransisco for some fun.On the way there we stopped at an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant in San Rafael.

From there we headed to the city and went out on a bike ride. It was fun to ride along the city and see all the things going on along the various pier's.

Caiden and I at the Bay Bridge (where we started from)

We stopped at this farmers market on one of the piers.

I bought and tried some dark chocolate with bacon

Roman bought Caiden and I one of these fancy cupcakes (tasted amazing)

Caiden on the ride

I just can't leave work

The kids at the chocolate making machine at Ghirardelli Square

Roman and I

A chocolate shake (tastey)

Riding back to the bay bridge

We came back to the bay bridge area and headed over to AT&T Park where the Giants play. I've never seen the new stadium, so it was neat to check it out.

They have free standing room only area in right field. This random guy snagged this baseball from under the fence and gave it to Baron. He was with a date so you know he'll get some nookie for that.

That area of water in the background is where home runs are occasionally hit into (Barry Bond's home run landed there)

There was a little mini baseball field across the water that we played a made up game on (without a baseball bat)

Brooklyn hanging out. She was more interested in getting out of the field, than playing with us

Roman and Jalen and Willie McCovey's statue

After hanging out at the baseball park, we headed over to Point Bonita to check out some of the old WW2 era military bunkers and lookout towers. We were hoping to see the light house, but the gate was locked when we got down the trail.

Caiden and I at an old gun station

In the musty downstairs leading to who-knows-where

Trying to capture a Kodak moment

But Roman was being bad, so Betsy gave him a slap (we hike up to that cement structure in the background, next)

We hiked up to this cool "lookout tower" of some sort and took some pictures. Funny "small world" story. We ran across some people visiting from Utah as well. They recognized our "Kearns Football" shirts.

Baron on the hike up

From the lookout tower we hiked down to the lighthouse trail, only to find the lighthouse tunnel was locked up. We couldn't even see the lighthouse

Caiden, Jalen, and I taking a "shortcut" that didn't end up being very short

Baron flashing that million dollar smile. He is such a cute kid

Since the gate was locked, we climbed around on the rocks for a bit before heading back to the cars and back to Sac-town.

The Rosario Family walking back up the trail

Roman showing us all how to throw a rock into the ocean

California trip: Day 1/2

2010-06-23T09:03:00.002-06:00

It had been a good 5 years since I had seen my best friend from high school, Roman, and his growing family. I had decided enough was enough and booked time off from work to take a road trip out to visit them and get a tour of the place I grew up to see how much it had changed.

I planned it around the time Caiden was out of school. Unfortunately Alene and Bailey could not join us because Bailey is very difficult on long car rides.

The drive there wasn't as bad as I last remembered it, but back then I didn't have an ipod, or a DVD player for your car (don't worry, I was only listening to the movies), so that explains a lot. If I would have driven straight there I could have made it in about 10.5 hours, but since Roman wasn't going to be off work until later that evening, I decided to take a scenic route on highway 49 from Auburn down to my old hometown of Placerville. I showed Caiden the American River, Coloma (where the gold rush started), and the old town of Placerville.

(Most of these pictures were taken with my iphone since my regular camera decided to quit after 4 pictures)

South Fork of the American River

Lotus bridge - I remember my brother in-law troy and his buddy jumping off this bridge when I was younger. I used to think he was such a stud for doing it (and still do).

Fire station in Placerville - I got my first ticket, about 10 days after getting my license, by doing a U-turn in the driveway.

Placerville Soda Works - I remember touring this place in elementary school and they had this cave that went way back into the mountain that stayed cool year-round and it was used as a fridge. I believe this place now has concerts from local bands.

This used to be the Empire Theater and it used to have wicked double-feature movies back in the day. I remember seeing "Hot to Trott" and "Beatlejuice" over and over and only paying like $2.

My dad and I landscaped this corner hillside planter. I remember it was such a pain in the rear to mow as well, but over 15 years later it's still doing well.

Caiden and I arrived at Roman and Betsy's house around 6pm that evening. A funny little side note is that I had Roman's old address, which was only a couple of miles from their current address. I showed up at his old house and rang the doorbell several times. I called Roman and he said Betsy was out running errands, but they left the back door open so I could go in. I opted to go for a little bike ride with Caiden since we had been driving so long. As we were riding Roman texted me asking where I was. I said I was almost at their house. When I got there, I started knocking on the door again, still no answer. I texted Roman and asked where Betsy was and he said she was home. As you can guess, I was at the old address. Caiden and I tossed our bikes back on the car and quickly got out of there.

I met up with Betsy and their kids Jalen (9), Baron (5), and Brooklyn (1). The last time we had seen Jalen, he was about 4 years old and Baron was just a little baby. We all got along quickly and went out to play catch with the football. Roman showed up a bit later and Baron had the great idea for Roman and I to play against them in a game of football. Roman and I quickly schooled them, then went inside the house because it was getting late :-).

The next day we got up and went golfing (as planned). It was very windy, but we weren't going to let that stop us. I had the best score, but I cheated like mad (I should have had the worst score).

Caiden and Jalen driving the golf cart

Me and the boys

Action shots

Roman's tee off

My tee off over some water

Jalen's tee off over the same water

After golfing, we went to the Squeeze Inn Burger and had one of the best/worst burgers ever. These things were the best because they tasted so good; they were the worst because I'm sure they were an easy 1000 calories and 100 grams of fat. No regrets.

After that we went to this AWESOME placed called Sky High Sports and I LOVED it. It's like a giant trampoline center. The place is loaded with trampolines that extend all around the building. It's also broken up into sections for dodgeball, general jumping, little kids only, private parties, and a large foam pit (which was my favorite).

Roman's first flip

My first flip

Baron's jump

Jalen's little jump off the side trampoline

Attempting to do a back flip off the side trampoline

Caiden almost hitting his head

Me and Baron

Me and Caiden

This kid was "coaching us" through doing a flip. He was really good.

Later that night Roman and I went out on a man date to see downtown Sacramento. I was shocked at how "metro" it had become. It was like a non-stop party everywhere you went. We decided to stop in and see if our old friend Brian was working at a restaurant and sure enough he was. It was awesome to see him and kind of odd at the same time. We were all REALLY close in high school, but kind of grew apart after that. Roman and I moved from the area 2 years after graduating and we had not seen Brian since. It really felt good to see him though and give him a good man hug and let him know we still love him.

Memorial Day Weekend: Capitol Reef

2010-06-06T17:02:00.002-06:00

On a typical Memorial Day weekend we plan to not do anything because we know that the places we like to go will be crowded. This year Alene has not had much of a chance to do any camping (due to Bailey's bad sleeping) so we didn't care and planned a trip to Capitol Reef. We figured that Capitol Reef is so far off the map that it had a better chance of not being over-populated.

Since I could not get any time off work, Alene took Bailey and headed down on Thursday morning in the truck to try to find a campsite in the park. All the sites were taken, so she called Bill (who was on his way down with April) and he directed her to another campsite area outside the park along the Fremont River.

Once Alene got there and set up, she and Bailey played around the river and saw a snake. During the rest of the trip whenever Bailey saw a stream or river she would say "Snake, SSSSSSSS".

Bill and April arrived later that evening (check out Bill's photo blog to see some SICK evening pictures) and Bailey slept surprisingly good for Alene.

On Friday they all did some hikes around Capitol Reef while I worked. Caiden and I headed down Friday evening and did not arrive to the Park area until 8pm. I saw their cars parked at the Hickman Bridge trailhead, so we started heading up the trail to meet them about half way.

Bailey hiking bare-foot up the hickman bridge trail

We got back to camp, had a little fire, then went to bed. It was a WINDY day that day through all of Utah as the gusts were crazy even on the freeway ride down. That evening was a bit hard to sleep because of the wind, but Bailey slept good again (2 for 2).

On Saturday we got up and headed down to the petroglyph trail, then over to the visitor center. From there we decided to hike the Cohab Canyon trail, which heads east out of the park from the Big barn area.

Going up all the switch backs

Looking down on the Fruita park/campground area

Cohab canyon was beautiful with lots of fun little side canyons to explore.

(Bill's sister Whitney)

I tried to do some wall walking, but didn't get very far

After getting about halfway through the canyon, April and Bill offered to hike back to the cars and meet us on the other side of the canyon exit (at the Hickman Bridge trail head), so Alene, Caiden, Bailey, Whitney and I kept going through. We took a side trail up to the North overlook.

Once we met up at the other side, Bill offered to drop Alene and I off at the Sulphur Creek trailhead and watch our kids while we hiked the river back down to the Fruita visitor center. It was a 5 mile hike and we weren't quite sure what to expect. We were blown away by how beautiful and amazing this hike was. Definitely one of the best hikes I've done in terms of terrain, and scenery with water flowing, lots of greenery, and LOTS of waterfalls. Keep in mind that we just did Coyote gulch a couple of weeks ago and while this hike didn't feature the huge alcove cut-outs, it was very comparable.

The beginning of the un-marked trail starts across from the Chimney Rock parking area. The wash looks like this for about a mile until you reach Sulphur Creek

We enter the river area

A small alcove

More pictures of the river as we hiked down

We ran into Bill, April, Whitney and the kids at this waterfall about 3/4 of a mile from the end.

Alene stayed back with Caiden, Bailey, and Lanik (April and Bill's son), while I took Bowen (April and Bill's other son), Bill, April, and Whitney in my truck up to drop them off so they could do the hike too. (see Bill's blog for their pictures)

While we waited at the Fruita park, the deer were all over the place, not really caring that we were 15' away

After they got back, we were all pooped. We headed into Torrey and grabbed a bit to eat, then headed back to camp for the night. Bill took this AWESOME photo of our campsite

We stuck around the campfire as long as we could before it was bed time. Bailey slept well again (3 for 3) so we were stoked that we knew she was warming up to camping. We think the warmer weather had something to do with it.

On Friday morning Caiden and I did the full hike up to Hickman Bridge while Alene and Bailey hung around Fruita for a bit.

Caiden on a little bridge on the way up to Hickman

Hickman Bridge (someday I'd like to hike on top of it)

After that we headed back home for the long drive. We snapped a picture of this local sheriff in Loa taking a nap

It was a great trip and I can't wait to get back to see more of Capitol Reef. The only major issue with this park is that if you want to get out and see more of it (it covers a lot of area) you have to drive for a while to really get out and see more. We pretty much saw most of the major local stuff off the highway.

I'm going to end this blog with pictures of all the various desert flowers in full bloom while we were there.

Anniversary Trip: Escalante, Utah - Coyote Gulch

2010-05-17T21:49:00.003-06:00

View Coyote Gulch in a larger map

It was me and Alene's 5 year anniversary and we decided to celebrate it with a backpacking trip in Escalante's Coyote Gulch. We had talked about doing this hike for a long time and we were so happy to finally do it. This was only our 2nd trip to Escalante area (as a couple), but we love going there and feel connected due to Alene's having lived there for 2 months on an archaeology dig when she was in college.

The canyon was a paradise for sure, with a nice little creek that runs through it, HUGE alcoves that cut deep into the canyon, multiple arches, springs, beautiful green trees, and the list goes on.

On our first day, we drove down there on the morning of the 13th and arrived in the mid-afternoon at the parking area just past Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock

The trail head

We used our GPS and points provided by our dear brother in-law Bill and headed down into Hurricane Wash.

Entering Hurricane Wash

Water begins to start flowing in Hurricane wash

The confluence of Hurricane wash and Coyote Gulch

Coyote Gulch and the huge alcoves that cut into the canyon

We made it to Hamblin Arch, but all the good campsites around it were taken, so we continued on

The river near our campsite

Our campsite

We slept when the sun went down and woke up in the morning to light rain. We stayed in the tent until about 9am when the rain stopped. Being that we were in a desert, the ground dried up very quickly. We ate breakfast and quickly headed out on our 10+ mile round trip hike down the rest of Coyote Gulch, to the Escalante River, viewpoint for Stephens arch, then back. The whole trip took about 8.5 hrs down and back. We hiked at a pretty good pace, but this part of the canyon was amazing.

Approaching swiss cheese falls

Swiss cheese falls

The choke point

Coyote Bridge: This was so awesome because the river runs right through it

The flash flooding in this canyon must be awesome

At times the canyon opens up nice and wide with beautiful meadows like this

We took a side trip up to this "swimming hole". I have to admit that I'd have to be pretty hot and desperate to swim in it, but it was pretty neat to see all the water seeping off the canyon walls into this pool

We started to get to the water fall section

Cliff arch

More waterfalls

Getting close to the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River

Finally arrived at the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River. Check out the amount of sand being pushed from Coyote gulch, into the Escalante River

From here we hiked North a bit to Stephens Arch. We were surprised how close it was to the confluence area. We passed a group of 3 older men who had gone backpacking up Stephens Canyon and were on their way out

I stripped down to my undies and took a quick dip in the river here, but it was COLD and flowing a bit too fast for me, so I was out pretty quick. This is a picture of me showing how much weight I've lost so far. I used to fill these pants out with not much room to spare. Time for new pants I guess :-). Still want to drop about 20 more lbs.

On our hike back to camp, I saw this awesome tree growing high up on the side of a canyon wall

The desert flowers were in full bloom

We got back to camp, had some dinner and slept our 2nd night in the canyon. It was cool sleeping in this section because we could hear all the crickets and frogs making all kinds of nature noises through the night. We woke up early, ate breakfast, and headed out back to our car.

Quick smooch by Hamblin Arch on our way out

One last picture of some awesome alcoves cutting their way through the canyon

The exit up out of Hurricane wash sucked. It was late morning, not a cloud in the sky and the sun was at full exposure. It took a lot out of us.

We took a quick ride town Hole in the Rock road for a bit to check out Dance Hall Rock and have a little lunch

We then headed back to Escalante State Park for some much needed showers and a nice little hike through their Petrified Forest. We took a picture of this area when we were last here about 4 years ago.

On our way back home, we stopped along Hwy 12 to take this picture of Lower Bowns Reservoir. We would like to come back and check this area out for some nice mountain camping and possible swimming

This trip was awesome. I had such a good time spending much needed personal time with Alene. We were able to do a lot of talking, laughing, and joking and really enjoying each others company. It was also a great time to kind of "refresh" our relationship as we were celebrating 5 years. I look forward to many more celebrations with Alene. I love her so much.

04.11.10 Moonshine Wash

2010-04-14T23:35:00.004-06:00

Upon catching some lunch and leaving the Trin Alcove Bend area of the Green River (after doing the Northwest Fork of Three Canyon), Bill and I headed over to the Moonshine wash area, which runs parallel to Three Canyon, so it wasn't too far away. We immediately headed out for the canyon upon getting to the parking spot.

Moonshine was much more beautiful than I remembered it. The canyon, especially the slot sections, is one of the most beautiful around. Even my cheap little digital camera captured some decent shots. One part I forgot about was the amount of scrambling down choke sections of the slot. If you bring children, be sure you have at least two people that are secure enough to down climb 6' to 10' and you're capable of passing the kids down to each other on multiple down climbs. I'm going to post a few of Bill's photos here because they're so amazing and of course, they feature me :-).

Click on any photo to see the larger version of it (better details)

We did the short-cut route to the beginning of the slot, rather than waste a mile or so of hiking through sand.

Beginning of the slot

It starts to tighten up

(Photo courtesy of Bill)

Pictures of the narrow sections

(Photo courtesy of Bill)

Bill, doing a down-climb

We finally arrive at the fragile sheephearders bridge

(Photos Courtesy of Bill)

After the bridge, the canyon starts to widen up

We decided to work our way down to the famous spring and old cement moonshine tanks that this canyon is famous for. This required us to exit up out of the canyon and do some cross-country hiking (brought to you by Bill's GPS) to the proper canyon entrance.

Going up the exit area

Walking cross country to the tank entrance

We arrive at the spring and tanks

Visiting the tanks was somewhat uneventful, but at the same time it was one of those things I'd been wanting to do for a while. I also felt privileged that I was able to see a cool part of recent history.

We ended up hiking the western rim of the canyon back. We had hoped to find an easy route to see the old sheepherders bridge from above, but we were too tired to make the effort. We'll save that one for another trip. This trip was awesome an it was cool to cover two amazing canyons in one day. I'm so thankful for my wife's support in being able to enjoy a great day hiking and for the sacrifice Bill made in extending his road driving time another 3 hours (each way) for this after being gone for an entire week. Thanks for coming along Bill.

04.11.10 Northwest Fork of Three Canyon

2010-04-13T09:07:00.006-06:00

I have been wanting to come back to this area ever since the first time we came here with Bill for his birthday a few years ago. I've never been to Three Canyon, but had read about it and it's always been somewhat of a mystery to me and I've wanted to explore it badly.

Alene and I had originally planned to do this trip together, but she had to work a lot of hours preceding this week and was feeling guilty about the time spent away from our daughter Bailey, so she encouraged me to invite my brothers. Jeff was planning on coming until the day before when he cut his hand while doing the dishes. When rappelling is involved, it's hard to do that with a cut hand. Luckily my brother in-law Bill was willing to sacrifice his time and come along with me. Keep in mind that Bill had been back from his trip to California for a total of about 1 hour.

We headed down around 6pm, which meant we would be looking for a campsite in the dark. Bill had the idea to camp at the nearby Chaffin Ranch geyser, which we had heard about but have never seen. Bill had the GPS coordinates, so it wasn't too hard to find in the dark. We set up camp and Bill did some star trails. Eventually we walked over to the geyser and just as we arrived it started to bubble up. The geyser is an old drill hole sight that tapped into a pocket of CO2. There didn't seem to be a method to the timing of it gushing, but we lucked out both at night in the morning of catching it (we also camped about 20' from it so we wouldn't miss it).

Hanging out by the campfire

Bill's star trails and an old chevy (photo Courtesy of Bill)

Night time geyser

Geyser area (the minerals in the water make the area this red color)

Me, standing at the geyser (photo courtesy of Bill)

Messing around one of the old cars (photo courtesy of Bill)

After some pictures and breakfast, we loaded up our stuff into the truck and headed directly for the trailhead for the Northwest Fork of Three Canyon.

As suggested by all the guidebooks, we first headed over to the exit point and tied a hand line in order to get past a difficult 8' tall section.

We then headed back along the canyon rim and dropped in.

The beginning of the canyon

Starts to tighten up

The first downclimb

Our second tiny obstacle (a small pothole of water)

Looking down on and prepping for the first big rappel (about 36 feet tall)

Going down

We then went down canyon a bit more to find the bigger (60+ foot) rappel. This one was a bit different because we couldn't see the bottom from where we started, so since it was my birthday, Bill said he would go first again :-). Since we couldn't see the bottom, we couldn't tell if our ropes had hit, so Bill went on a single line and evened them out at the bottom, I went down on the traditional double line.

Looking back on our 2nd rappel

We then headed down canyon and worked our way into Three Canyon

Three Canyon was pretty uneventful due to these TALL grasses that covered the entire canyon floor.

Bill was cursing the grasses and the water he kept accidentally stepping into

We got tired of trudging through these grasses, so after 1/2 a mile or so, we opted to head back and go check out moonshine wash.

A grass-less area of Three Canyon

Going up the exit route

Before heading over to Moonshine wash, we opted to drive down to the drill hole site where Three Canyon meets the Green River at the Trin Alcove bend. We ate lunch and headed out to moonshine wash (I'll do a separate post for that)

How to levitate

2010-03-29T17:57:00.001-06:00

My dear brother in-law Bill taught us how to levitate this past weekend. It was NOT easy, but once you can do it, it's kind of fun. We were thinking of teaching the puppies, but they're WAY too young to try right now.

Thanks for the great lessons Bill (and the great camera work).

03.26.10 San Rafael Swell Day 1

2010-03-28T12:06:00.001-06:00

We were just recently here, but we took another trip to the swell this time to follow Bill around for his annual Birthday camping trip. We arrived a little later than we would have liked to on Friday, but we had just enough time to set up camp and do a quick little hike to Farnsworth Canyon.

Farnsworth is cool because it's short and sweet and you see some awesome little slots. Perfect for taking kids and since it's not along a heavily used BLM road, you'll likely not encounter another person. We're definitely coming back to this place.

(note: to see the larger version of a picture, click on the picture, then on the "All sizes" button above it)

Trailhead from the parking area

Dropping into the canyon

The crew

Starting to narrow up

Bill, doing his thing

The first hike of Dexter and Debra's 5 month old life. They were awesome hikers

Dexter chilling

Bailey chilling

Awesome slot

Water stopped most of us, but I continued on over the water and through the back of the slot

The canyon starts to widen again

Cool rock and choke stone

Heading back down canyon

Bailey was a good little hiker

03.27.10 San Rafael Swell Day 2

2010-03-28T09:14:00.000-06:00

After a HORRIBLE night with Bailey (she was up most of the night crying) and freezing to death, we were anxious for the sun to come up and get out and doing something. Our sleeping bag zippers broke, so we could not seal ourselves up and we were COLD (it was around 30 degrees).

We first headed up to Wild Horse Window (or some call it Skylight Arch). We've done this trip a couple of times already, but it's a fun hike because you jump right on the reef and make your way up to this HUGE cave/arch.

Bailey had fun hiking through the sand

Up to the caves and arch

I hiked up on top of the arch and took some pictures

The Henry Mountains in the distance

Looking down on Bailey and Alene

Someday I'd like to try a rappel into this arch by anchoring off this tree. I'll probably chicken out when the opportunity strikes though.

Alene, Bailey and I

Heading back to the cars

We then headed off to Little Wild Horse Canyon, which is the most popular slot canyon in the area due to the abundance of slots and ease of access. I kind of don't like going here because there are TONS of people, especially on a Saturday but the canyon is beautiful.

Heading up canyon

The puppies were AWESOME hikers

Bailey and mommy

Bailey did awesome hiking in the slots as well

The dogs doing more hiking

Pictures of the slots

Dogs were pooped, so we let them chill for a while (OK, we were pooped too)

Bailey heading out of the slot

We went back to camp for a bit. Some of the group opted to rest a bit, so I decided to set up a rappel on a 20' rock. I had been wanting to practice a few techniques on ascending, but never quite figured it out and just ended up rappelling. Alene hit it up a few times (no pictures because I didn't have my camera with me then), then April and her friend Brittany did the rappel a couple of times.

April heading over the edge

Brittany heading down

My last rappel

Looking down on our awesome campsite

After rappelling, we headed over to Goblin Valley to play around on the rocks and wait for the sun to go down a bit.

Bailey fell asleep just as we pulled up. I was able to carry her around for a while (she never lets me hold her when Alene is around)

I handed her off to Alene so we could take turns doing some levitating

Moon above Goblin Valley

After Goblin we headed back to the campsite to start dinner. We finished packing the truck up and left after dark to get home by 1am. We were not going to go through another sleepless, cold night with Bailey. Pretty bummed that we couldn't stay through Sunday because we wanted to do more things with Bill and the rest, but our sanity was on the line.

San Rafael Swell Day 1: Goblin Valley

2010-03-10T20:18:00.001-07:00

Cabin fever had been set in for a LONG time, especially for Alene. I was fortunate enough to be able to slip out to some desert hiking in a January trip to St George back in January, so I had had a tiny fix.

Since we are having an unusually cold winter, we decided to get a hotel in Green River, UT. DON'T EVER STAY AT THE RAMADA LIMITED!! The hotel was horrible. The first room they gave us had not been cleaned (towels and bedding still on the floor) and the "continental breakfast" consisted of sour milk, peeled hardboiled eggs (I personally like to peel my own), and stale bread. We've stayed at the Comfort Inn before, which I don't remember much, but I'm sure is much better than this place. Our next try will likely be the Holiday Inn, but I'm hoping to limit our hotel stays while visiting the desert to once a year (late winter).

Back to the trip. We left on Friday morning and headed straight for Goblin Valley. We were really worried about the recent storms and even a week ago when I passed by the swell while on a work trip, I had seen the area COVERED in snow, so I was worried. We had had dry weather down there for the week leading up to us going down there, so we were optimistic. We scored, with the Reef having hardly any snow (only in patches) and Goblin Valley looking the same. Hardly any mud too. When we went there last May it was rain-soaked and miserable, so this was a much better experience. Plus, it was Bailey's first time being in the Swell and being able to walk. She had a great time up until when it started to get a bit cold.

(Click on any picture and "all sizes" to see a larger version)

Kids enjoying a movie on our way down

Bailey and I walking down into Goblin Valley

Bailey excited to be out of the car and walking

This Goblin is ready to die

The Goblin Valley creek was running

Bailey had to get her toes muddy

Caiden in meditation

Practicing my Crane

Looking down at the Henry Mountains

My lover and I in the valley of Goblins

As it got colder we opted to run to the Temple Mountain junction and run around on the reef for a bit. It lasted about 5 minutes when Bailey could not stand being out anymore. We headed back to Green River for bad food and bad beds.

San Rafael Swell Day 2: Black Dragon Canyon, Goblin Valley, and Little Wild Horse Canyon

2010-03-10T19:18:00.002-07:00

Day 2 was our introduction to Ramada Limited's "Continental breakfast", which left us wanting for more. We met up with our friends James, his lady-friend Amber, and the Beatty family, ate what we could tolerate of our breakfast, then headed immediately for Black Dragon Canyon. The Beatty's had never been to the Swell before so we opted to give them the initation of quick and easy places to see for your first time. While at Black Dragon Canyon I encouraged them to all hike up above to see the cave located at the top of the rock fall.

Alene, Bailey, and Beatty Family hiking in the canyon

Bailey and her new boots (they didn't stay on very long)

Up at the pictograph panel

Hanging out with Bailey while mommy explored the cave (bailey wasn't too happy about that)

Bailey back with her mommy

We then headed down to Goblin Valley to do some hiking. Of course Bailey dozed off pretty quickly

Within a few minutes of arriving the daredevil Matt tried to impress his son by jumping off a rock and did something bad to his calf, forcing him to become the walking wounded

Caiden

A dead Goblin

Caiden at one of the small Goblin caves

Family picture

Alene's crane

We then headed off to Little Wild Horse canyon, but forgot our camera, so I'll defer to the Beatty's and James for their photos soon. The canyon was nice to hike in (hardly any snow, as opposed to the snow that Dennis Udink experienced a couple of weeks before) and we turned around in the 2nd set of narrows where the shallow pools exist. Passable by adults, but hard for kids.

After that we headed to our favorite campsite in North Temple wash, had a campfire and ate dinner. When we left, we said goodbye to the Beatty's as they had to be somewhere early sunday morning. We headed back to the wonderful Ramada Limited.

San Rafael Swell Day 3: Swasey's Cabin

2010-03-10T18:33:00.023-07:00

Our last day there had us trying to figure out what to do. I stupidly suggested going up to the Head of Sinbad area to see Dutchman arch and some of the pictograph panels. Stupidly I hadn't figured that the "swell" was significantly higher in elevation than we were down at the bottom of the reef. There was a TON of snow and the road getting to Dutchman Arch area is 5-6 miles of occasionally graded dirt (and at this point, covered in snow). We decided to give it a try and amazingly we were doing pretty good. James followed in Amber's saturn, which did have studded tires. We got all the way to the dutchman arch turn-off and found the snow about 3' deep, so we decided to push on to the Swasey Cabin (which we had never been to).

The reef looked awesome covered in clouds at Spotted Wolf

The snow covered road at Page Flat

This is what ended up stopping us about a mile (or less) short of Swasey's Cabin (which was to the right of those cliffs ahead)

We opted to hike into it

Getting close to the cabin

In the cabin

Looking at Sinbad country from the cabin

Caiden and I stopping for a picture break

The drive back was the scarriest moment I've ever had in a car. By the afternoon the sun had melted a lot of the snow and those dirt roads turned to mudd. Our car was ALL OVER THE PLACE, but we made it out.

All in all a great trip and I can't wait to come back to this place (hopefully at the end of this month). I can never get bored here.

Red Cliffs recreation area

2010-02-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

I had a business trip to St George, Utah this past week and decided to take advantage of being in the area for a little hike. I love the St George area, but have only spent time at Zion NP and Snow Canyon SP. I asked for advice on some message boards about some quick local hikes in the area and had some great suggestions. I settled on Red Cliffs recreation area, which is located near Leeds, UT (north of St George). Getting to the location was VERY quick and easy.

I took the Leeds exit and followed a frontage road south a few miles and turned west to head under I-15.

Then I followed the road through this creek and on to the campground area.

I took this picture as I was heading in. Loved the different colors of the dead winter vegetation, the red cliffs, and the snowy Dixie Nattional forest in the background.

I started my hike right away and was amazed at how beautiful it was. The trail follows a creek the whole way and along the way I found this funny-looking tree (it's huge).

The canyon is somewhat wide as I went up and mostly looked like this.

I then came upon the first pool and waterfall. I can imagine this is very nice for a swim in the summer time

The local tribes of southern utah have left their marks (probably teenagers)

I continued up canyon as it started to get deeper and narrower. I loved this area as it lead to another set of two pools and waterfalls.

If you wanted to avoid getting wet, you had to use the handline and moki steps to get up and above it. This area of the canyon was very beautiful (above it) as well)

I continued hiking up as the creek made a sharp turn North and became too narrow for me to hike along.

I scrambled up the sandstone above it to see how much further the creek continued. I decided to hang out up here for a bit and take a few more pictures of the water and of the sandstone in the area.

I climbed up onto this large petrified poo rock and took in the view

As I climed down, I noticed a lot of B&H's along the top of this area. I'm assuming this must be a popular area for climbers. I'd love to come back and do some rapelling as the trip to the top is not that far/hard to get to

I booked it back to the car and back home to SLC. I had a great trip and look forward to coming back with Alene to do more exploring. There were TONS of side canyons I wasn't able to explore due to time. This is definitely a place I will be coming back to when I'm down here.

Ice Fishing at Scofield reservior

2010-01-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

Alene gave me the gift of ice fishing (for my first time) for Christmas. It was something new for me to try and I was able to bring my brother Russ and my brother in-law Brock. Alene entered us in the Scofield reservoir ice fishing tournament. We didn't win anything, but we had a great time and each caught 3 fish.

Here's a little video I made of our trip.

Zion National Park Day 3

2009-09-22T22:29:00.003-06:00

Day 3 I woke up a bit sore and anxious to get back to my baby girl. But I knew the Emerald Pools was a short trail that give us a chance to stretch before sitting in the car for 5 hours.

We hit the trail at a perfect time in my opinion, early enough that it wasn't yet too crowded or very hot. We did the whole thing, adding the upper and middle pools, still just getting in over 2.5 miles.

A peaceful morning at Zion

The Middle Emerald pool is just behind me in the picture, but I like the view with all of the greenery this way the best.

And of course when April and I found this bit of machinery we knew her boys would love to see it:

In my opinion, the Emerald pools is definitely a hike worth taking. I've done it a number of times and it honestly delivers on being short and sweet.

I already can't wait for a new adventure with April next year!

Zion West Rim Trail Day 2

2009-09-22T22:10:00.003-06:00

We woke early and got on the trail just after having some instant oatmeal. It was less than a mile before we starting seeing more spectacular views. And what surprised me was that I knew these canyons we were seeing were not the main Zion canyon, but numerous ones mostly unexplored, or more accurately probably too remote and inaccessible to see much traffic. I was overwhelmed thinking of all of the space and curious features of the land that I never knew about and that so few people actually see. There's so much more than I ever imagined to Zion National Park and Utah in general.

I really like the juxtaposition of the greenery on the one side and the rock walls on the other.

Here's a picture of Rim springs, looking cleaner than Potato Hollow springs did and by that time it was getting pretty warm out. We filtered a couple of bottles.

We actually came down quite a bit from the rim so that we could get on top of a different outcropping of rock. I didn't expect as much up and down as there was along the trail which would explain why I was sore a few days afterward.

Our first view of Angel's Landing: If you're not familiar with Zion National Park it's the spiny rock in the foreground, it has chains to hang on to as you hike up onto the top part that flattens out.

Closer up on Angel's Landing, another contributing factor to the soreness in my legs in the days following this hike, thought my running and stairmaster sessions would have nipped this in the bud. Other peaks haven't made me so sore, but again, probably it was the up and down with a pack that did it.

View looking up the canyon from atop Angel's Landing

Once we were headed down from Angel's Landing we knew we were home free. Just a couple more miles all downhill and we could take off our packs, get a cold drink and relax in the Virgin River for a while before setting up camp at the Watchmen campground.
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Or that was the plan anyway until we accidentally stumbled upon the sweetest swimming hole ever while driving through the old tunnel. I can't say exactly where this $%#@&@# GEM OF A WATERHOLE is, because I'm going to treasure that information from this day out, but let me just show you how sweet it was:

Yes, that's right, we had it to ourselves after just a few minutes. The rock at the back was perfect for jumping off of, not high, but just enough to be tons of fun. Needless to say, it was absolutely refreshing and a complete surprise considering the number of times I've been to Zion and not known this pool was there.

So we abandoned other plans of getting in the Virgin river that day, set up camp and did the easy Riverside walk to the entrance of the Narrows. Beautiful. Yes, I forgot how beautiful that simple little paved trail is when all the plants are in their prime. Lush and beautiful.

Into the Great Wide Open: Zion West Rim Trail Day 1

2009-09-22T21:32:00.004-06:00

April and I used to belt out that Tom Petty line on various road trips from Provo to Missoula when my parents were still living there. I really think it's been that long since we took a road trip together sans children.

We planned a trip to Zion National Park for a quick weekend getaway. April had been once years ago and though I'd been a number of times, I'd primarily seen the main tourist circuits at the southern end of the park, aside from my Kolob Arch hike a few years ago. So we settled on hiking the West Rim trail from Lava point, a 13 mile trail that meets up with the Angel's Landing trial at the saddle. We'd drop our packs to summit Angel's Landing and then explore some of the shorter trails.

I'd honestly been kind of burnt out on Zion having gone a few years in a row at the end of football season. The whole idea was usually that it would be a warm getaway, but late November isn't really that much warmer in St. George area than it is in Salt Lake. Warmer, but not significantly so to base a vacation around warm weather. This time was different though and I credit that to the awesome hike and it being earlier in the year so all of the greenery was still abundant. That being said, we were subject to hiking in over 100-degree weather on day 2.

We started out on Friday, September 11 driving down to the south visitor's center park and getting our backcountry passes. We met up with Tyler who was doing some work in St. George for the day and willing to be our shuttle driver to the trailhead. He dropped us off around 3:30-4 pm and we got started.

It was an easy 4 miles to our campsite that night, and I wasn't expecting much as far as scenery until we got further along the trail but I've attached samples below of what we saw that first day, I was pleasantly surprised:

Endless canyons

Tree graveyard in the meadow

Campsite at Potato Hollow springs

There we stayed our first night. The spring was not very promising, more like a little mud hole, and we only filtered 1 bottle of water, knowing we had enough to get by until we met Rim Springs the next day. But I really thought it was the best campsite after seeing all of the other sites along the trail. A friendly deer nibbled on grasses the whole time April and I were eating our dinner. We went to bed just as it got dark because it was much cooler up there than we had anticipated, but more deer joined our friendly one and we both heard them about the campsite for a long while before falling asleep.

Farmington Canyon

2009-09-08T22:13:00.000-06:00

Alene and I were hoping for a big hike on Labor day, but we failed to plan on finding a baby sitter (which would have been hard anyway) and since Alene is taking this weekend to do a backpacking trip with her sister April, we decided to do a smaller hike with Bailey (Caiden was at his mom's).

Alene found a nice little hike up Farmington Canyon at the Sunset campground. I had no idea this canyon existed and went back as far as it did. The road that takes you up the canyon actually goes up into some beautiful country and you can take it all the way into Bountiful. I was a little disturbed by all the OHV's, but they have the right to be up here too I guess. The campground (Sunset Campground) was about 5 miles up the canyon and it had a small, almost un-noticible trail leading down into the canyon bottom.

The trail didn't look very heavily traveled as the brush around it was very narrow in some spots. The campground also had about 10-15 spots, but only one person still set up for camp that day.

We hiked down about 5-10 minutes to the canyon floor. On our way down we passed a father/daughter that had been doing some geocaching and found an old abandoned gold mine. We tried to find it when we got down there, but had no luck. The creek that runs along the bottom is beautiful. As we worked our way down stream we came across a family that had backpacked down there and set up camp along the creek. We also worked our way down to a small area that bailey could play in the water. Just below that was a nice little water fall. Getting to the bottom of the waterfall was doable, but not with a baby (too steep). Bailey had a blast getting wet and soaking her face in the peach we brought for her to eat.

It was a nice little hike. Someday I'd like to go back and explore the rest of this area. I'm told there are some beautiful lakes along the way as the road brings you back to Bountiful.

Here are some pictures and video:

Mommy and Bailey all ready to go

The skinny trail

Awesome view of the Great Salt Lake

Our first sign of water

An old wrecked car. It must have been rolled down to this spot. Pretty amazing how far it must have gone

The waterfall from a distance

The only way down to the base of the waterfall

Bailey loved dipping her feet in the water

She also loved finding rocks at the bottom of the creek

Looking down from the top of the waterfall

Bailey enjoying her peach

A pool in the creek

Another picture of the Great Salt Lake from Farmington Canyon

Bailey rode home with only her diaper on as she soaked her clothes with creek water and Peach juice

She also got tickeld a lot

Uintas Confession

2009-07-19T12:05:00.005-06:00

Bailey and I snuck up for a night of camping in the Uintas with my sister's family last weekend. They already had plans and it wasn't too hard for me to throw some stuff together and meet them. I was excited about the impulsiveness of it and the chance to actually get out with less than a 2 hour drive. But the truth is I just don't get as excited about going to the Uintas as I do the desert. Despite growing up in Montana and still loving the beauty there, somewhere along the way I fell in love with the desert, most likely when I did my two-month dig there in 2001, but I"d had it coming long before then too.

When I first moved to Israel in 2000 I couldn't believe how brown most of it was. Just brown. Not exactly how you might have pictured "the fertile crescent." But I loved it, I never minded it, it was full for me because of all the mysteries there, all the passion there, all the godliness there. I remembered a quote from reading "the Little Prince" earlier that said: "What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." (I'm sure I've said this somewhere before, but hey, I feel passionately about it.)

So heading to the Uintas is a nice change when the desert is too hot or when I need a quicker getaway, but doesn't quite fulfill my hunger. And I have to also confess that I couldn't stand the sense that I hadn't really escaped at all when I am driving and its as busy as a Japanese train station there. Lots of waiting behinds lines of vans, cars, trucks, campers, etc. Packed campgrounds (I'm not fond of campgrounds in general, but when you're sort of planning on doing that kind of thing it sucks when they're all full).

Lucky for me, my sister and her husband had scouted out ahead of me and decided to scrap the campgrounds altogether. They waited for me to meet up with them and we quickly found a site not much further that was off the main drag.

We set up camp and proceeded to battle the mosquitoes full force. We drove to a nearby spot and ate dinner, played in the water, and saw just how dirty the kids could get.

By bedtime Bailey had done the best she could to dirty up those jammies of hers.

I caught my nephew putting a rock in my cooler, but later on I found that he had snuck in many more than just that one. I consider his little rocks signs of endearment.

Next morning we went for a short hike. Truth was as much as I like a good hike, I was not sure I was up for carrying Bailey for another 5-miler so after having just done it the last weekend (I need to toughen up a bit), coupled with the mosquito problem, we all decided to play a little and head back. We had only done a little over mile from the parking lot to Cliff Lake and slightly beyond. A sort of reverse version of the Clyde Lake loop Tyler and I had done a few years back.

Bailey was having a good time just standing by this little log.

It started drizzling just before we reached the parking lot and then Bailey had a solid car nap the whole way home. I think she was making up for not being such a good sleeper in the tent and helping me out since nothing sucks like driving alone with a crying baby.

I would have liked it if Tyler had been able to come to, but I did enjoy the benefits of buying fig newtons instead of oreos and pastrami instead of turkey.

Bill took some great photos of the lake and all of the kids. See his set on Flickr here.

Silver Lake

2009-07-05T14:03:00.003-06:00

View 07.03.09 Silver Lake in a larger map

On Friday I took the day off from work to do a hike with the family and Alene's sister, April, and her kids. We endedp hiking up to Silver Lake. Now, I know there a million Silver Lakes in Utah, so to avoid any confusion, this one is located up American Fork canyon.

You start off by making your way up to Tibble Fork reservoir, then you keep driving on the switch-back road (still paved) beyond Tibble Fork. After a few miles there is a dirt road that veers off to the right (right before the Granite flat campground), and you follow that dirt road for 6 miles or so up to Silver Flat reservoir. From there the trailhead starts and you work your way up the mountain. It's a 5 mile hike round trip, but doable for families. I'd HIGHLY suggest not bringing your jog stroller on this path like a family we saw attempting to do. There are a couple of stream crossings, one of which requires rock-hopping. As you get closer to the top, it gets a bit more grueling, but it really isn't a bad hike. If you're out of shape (like me) you'll feel it when you get up there and the next day for sure.

Here are some pictures and video clips of this hike:

Heading up

A few of the 3-4 streams you cross

Bailey knows how to hike in style

Caiden's getting so big

This tree has been expecting me.....

Blue bells (lick on the large version of the picture to see the details of the inside of the flowers)

As we got closer, we could see two waterfalls cascading down from Silver Lake

Looking back down toward AF Canyon with Timp on the Right side of the picture

Finally at the lake. There were about 5-6 other groups of people up there too.

Bailey with her mommy

Bailey with her brother

The family

Bailey LOVED splashing her feet in the water

Video of the entire lake

Straight Wash, Goblin Valley, Lower Eardley Canyon, and Black Dragon Canyon

2009-06-16T21:28:00.004-06:00

I don't have a lot of time right now, but I'm going to post links to the sets of each of these hikes. Some of these pictures are dated from previous trips. The pictures at the beginning are from this trip.

Straight Wash - This is where we camped

Goblin Valley - The first 18 pictures are from this trip

Eardley Canyon

Black Dragon Canyon - Just the pictures from inside the cave are from this trip

Also did some light painting along the I-70 and Hwy 24 junction while waiting for Russ

San Rafael Swell: Day 3

2009-05-25T00:32:00.005-06:00

We did not sleep as well as we did that first night because of both the rain and because of Bailey waking up quite a bit. We woke up to more sounds of rain and hard rain. We were feeling horrible with the thought that we would have to consider leaving and leaving James here, who drove the whole 4 hrs the day before to get there. We quickly ate breakfast and decided to go see Goblin Valley, as James had never been there before.

The place was a mud-soaked mess and the rain continued, but we walked through it anyway.

The chocolate river that ran through the park

Caiden with his poncho on

Bailey just waking up from her nap. Alene was carrying her under her nursing blanket most of the time.

Me and my kids

The rain stopped on our walk back to the cars, so the ground quickly became more stable

Caiden's shoes

The trail going up to the parking lot was dangerous

When we left, it started to rain again. We got to camp to talk about our situation a bit more and decided we needed to leave. James too decided he was going to leave. We felt horrible for him because the last time we went camping with him we had to leave under critical circumstances :-).

My climbing ropes were still tied up, so after loading the truck, the last thing I had to do was climb up some sandstone rock to release them and wrap them back up. That took quite a while, but I was relieved that it didn't end up too dangerous.

My brother's and I are going to go back on the weekend of June. 12th. I hope for much better weather then. We had a great time with two excellent hikes and it was fun hanging out with the Bergeners and getting to know the Grabers some more.

San Rafael Swell: Day 2

2009-05-24T09:45:00.002-06:00

On the second day we awoke to the surprise that Bailey slept through the whole night. We were shocked. Still, when she was up, she was UP. I somehow fell asleep in the tent for another 2 hrs while Alene played with Bailey and Caiden and the kids ran around on the sandstone around the campsite.

It took a while to get going, but it had been raining a little that morning, so we were trying to figure out the best thing to do. We headed to Goblin Valley, but noticed by the time we arrived, that it was raining even harder. We, as a group, decided to take our chances and go try something else and hope that Goblin Valley would be better to hike the next day (as you will see, we were wrong).

We decided to hike up to Skylight Arch, which was actually quite close to our campsite. We had previously known this hike as "San Rafael Window", or "Wild Horse Window", or "that cave thing you can see from the road". We did it about 2.5 years ago with my parents and I really enjoyed it, but Alene didn't remember it much. By the time we arrived at the trail head, the rain had stopped and the clouds actually disappeared. It was a very nice hike up and back.

This hike is cool because you get to be directly on sandstone most of the way up. When you're not, you're treking through soft sand. When you get to the Arch, you're amazed at the size. Some other cool things there are all the people that have carved their names into the ground in the area. You'll also find some fake pictographs.

Here are some pictures/video of the hike:

At the trailhead, waiting to head up

Looking back at our trucks

A water soaked cactus flower

Looking south toward Wild Horse Butte

Bailey hanging onto a flower

The group heading up

Getting closer

Some pools just before getting to the arch. This one had a bunch of tadpoles in it.

Bailey clapping

Jared, John, Kevin, and I hiked up to the top of the arch. It was SCARY being close to that drop as it is definitely a life-taker. Would be cool to rappel into it though.

I laid on my belly to get close enough to the edge to take this picture

A few more pictures of the arch from our previous trip (I never actually took pictures of the arch while we were there this time)

(older picture)

(older picture)

Thumbs down to the fake pictographs (older picture)

On our way back

After our hike, we decided to part ways for a bit with the rest of the group. They were up for a scenic drive, and we were almost out of ice, so we decided to see what Hanksville, UT was like. We knew it was the closest town to the Swell, but we didn't know it was less than 20 minutes away. It was great to get there, see the small town, and get some stuff we needed. Good to know in general that it's not too far away in the future for a REAL emergency.

Alene snapped a picture of this old church in town.

Bailey got some serious cookie face on the way back

When we got back to camp, the rest of the group had not returned from their drive yet, so I went and set up a rappel, in hopes we could all have a good time doing that. I was able to hit it once (no pictures/video), then the rain came POURING down. I quickly ran back to camp to get dinner ready, in hopes the rain would stop. It never stopped the rest of our time there.

The rest of our group returned a bit later, explaining how they ended up taking some pretty hairy roads and had to find their way back. I'm hoping they post video on their blog.

We were mostly worried, however, for our friend James, who was coming down with his girlfriend. Not only were we in a different campsite than he expected (I was able to email him earlier, but I wasn't sure if he received it), but the rain got heavier and heavier. As the evening rolled around, we sat in the truck while bailey slept. Around 9:30pm we got nervous and I decided to go driving to look for him. Within 10 minutes I had found him and guided him to our site. It must have been so horrible for him to arrive to these conditions. We quickly helped him set up his tent, then all went to bed for the night.

San Rafael Swell: Day 1

2009-05-24T08:29:00.003-06:00

Well, our original plan for our 5 days of no work was to go to Capital Reef National Park, but we kind of chickened out. Our biggest worry was for Bailey and having her sleep well. We figured we would rather go somewhere we're familiar with to lessen the stress a bit. Plus, our friends the Bergeners were going to be there with their neighbors the Grabers, so we figured we would invite ourselves and join them. We had a great time (as usual) despite us leaving a day earlier due to rain.

For all of the pictures/videos of this trip, feel free to check out our flicker sets here:

Crack Canyon

Skylight Arch

A few random pictures

Note that some of these sets are combined with previous visits to these areas. You can tell where they change by keeping an eye on the "date taken on" on the right hand side of the picture. As usual, you can enlarge each photo by clicking on "all sizes" at the top of the picture.

We got up at 4:30am on Thursday morning in order to get down to the Swell at a decent time. We were able to leave the house by 5:30am and got to the campsite around 9:30am. We ended up camping in South Temple wash, which is off the main road that runs through the Temple Mtn. Road. We quickly set up camp, made our lunches and got out there to go hike Crack Canyon. I had never done Crack Canyon, but Bill has kept telling me that Crack is an amazing canyon and he wasn't lieing. It could be one of my favorites in the swell so far.

It's fun because the drive into it was an adventure itself with a little 4x4 trail you take to the entrance (or you could hike the whole trail). The canyon has tall walls (as expected), lot's of greenery, some great narrows, an awesome "subway" of sorts, and a few drop-offs that make it challenging. I'd love to get to the end of this canyon someday. We hiked as far back as we could, until about the 4th drop-off, where we decided to not drop our kids down because it was a bit longer than the other drops.

All in all, we had a great hike. Here are some pictures from the hike below:

The opening of the canyon

Caiden and Madison climbing on the rocks

Subway looking area

Us in the subway area

The group hiking in the canyon

Greenery in the canyon

Log stuck in the canyon

Bailey getting her mineral in-take

Madison, Caiden, and Parker leading the way

Lifting and dropping kids packs down to each other

Alene waiting for us to come back up the canyon

Hiking back out

The trail going out was a little rough

Graber's truck

Jared's low-rider

When we got back we let the kids play while Jared, John, and I went shooting in North Temple wash. We set up our targets about 30' away:

John

Jared

Compilation of our shots: